


Alone + Silence + Deafness

by EWM



Series: Whumptober2020  (MyfirstWhumptober!!) [24]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, POV Riley Davis, Poor Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27183884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EWM/pseuds/EWM
Summary: This is my super trippy interpretation of a Whumptober Day 24 prompt. Mac walks in to the foundation on his own and finds Bozer alone crying his eyes out in the labs. Let me know what you guys think of it? I should add this is very much in the category of emotional whump, rather than physical whump (at least at this point) Should I continue with this?No 24.Forced Mutism | Blindfolded
Relationships: Angus MacGyver & Matilda "Matty" Webber (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Riley Davis & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Wilt Bozer & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Series: Whumptober2020  (MyfirstWhumptober!!) [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995484
Comments: 28
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

Mac walked through the doors of the Phoenix foundation, it was quiet, eerily so. Normally the place was packed full of employees, arguing and discussing projects or missions. There was even the odd soldier walking around, but no one today. Mac thought it was a little odd, but it was the weekend, he guessed not many people gave up their weekends for projects, the way he did. He wandered around feeling just faintly dizzy, he’d skipped breakfast so again not super surprising.

He made his way down to the labs and spotted Bozer? Why was Bozer here? He definitely didn’t give up his weekends. He saw Bozer siting alone with his head in his hands crying quietly. Mac ran over to him, horrified to see him so sad

“Hey man, what’s wrong? Come on tell me. Why are you crying?”

But Bozer didn’t react, he simply ignored Mac and turned away. He put his head on the desk and wrapped his arms round himself weeping. Mac was so confused, he hadn’t seen Bozer cry like this since his brother died. Mac tried again

“Boze, please tell me what’s wrong? I’m sure I can help. Maybe I can fix it . Come on talk to me.”

He continued to get no reaction. He realised that maybe Bozer needed a little space, maybe then he’d be willing to talk to him. Mac departed quietly looking back again at Bozer, he hated leaving his friend, but he wasn’t sure what he could do until Bozer would speak to him. Mac went upstairs to look for Riley, maybe she could get through to Bozer. He was always fascinated by the shared connection those two had, Bozer had always loved Riley, but now it was something else, more siblings or partners as opposed to lovers. He shot up the stairs pondering to himself.

He entered the war room and found Riley typing away at computer and Webber contemplating the big computer screen. So, everyone’s working weekends he thought…at least I’ll have more company. Neither of them were saying anything.

“Hey guys, have either of you seen Bozer he’s been crying downstairs...I think he really needs.”

At this point Webber interrupted talking about the next mission. Her head not turning away from the screen. Mac was a little bit shocked, Matty was always business like, but not usually so cold. He looked back at Riley, but she didn’t respond at all, just continued to type. He figured he’d grab Webber afterwards and ask what had happened. Webber continued to talk, still resolutely looking up at the screen, at one point she gestured with her hand and Riley snapped

“How can you be like this? How can you continue like everything is normal? Bozer is downstairs crying his eyes out….How can you talk like this? Ignore everything that’s happened?”

“Because it’s my job, Riley and yours.”

“It’s bullshit.”

“I’m well aware of what you think, now if we can continue.”

“Screw this shit...I’m out”

“You sound like Jack”

“I’m sure, he’d be ashamed of this and you Matty.”

“Wooah! Riles calm down. I’m sure..I can”

  
But Mac did not get a chance to finish sentence, Riley got up and stormed out, her booked thudding against the wooden floors of the Phoenix as she went. Mac raced after her instinct, something was horribly wrong, and he couldn’t get his head around it.

“Riles! Riley come back!” he called after

She made it out the front of the building, fuming, she wrapped around her arms herself despite the warm sunny day. Mac eventually caught up with her and stood in front of her

“Riles, please talk to me. What the hell is going on? Why did you snap at Matty? Why is everyone so upset?”

Riley ignored him

“Riley look at me.”

Again he was ignored, part of his brain started to panic, he couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening.

“Riles, look me in the eyes and tell me what the hell is going on.”

This time he put his hands on her shoulders, but it was like she didn’t register it. She looked away, her arms still wrapped around herself and then simply walked past him. Mac paused for a second, he couldn’t get what was happening, why hadn’t Riley responded, why hadn’t Bozer, he went to catch up with her.

“Riley, look at me I mean it. Please look at me.”

Still Riley said nothing

Mac rounded on her again, this time he yelled

“RILEY ! RILEY! PLEASE LOOK AT ME! LOOK ME IN THE EYES!”

Riley registered nothing, she just kept walking. She couldn’t see him or hear him, to her he was not there. Mac was dumfounded, he snapped his fingers at her face just to make sure

“You can’t see me, can you? Or hear me? III, I don’t know. My brain doesn’t quite...I really don’t understand this. Please Riley come on, show me you can see me.”

Riley couldn’t see Mac, she didn’t hear his pleas. She was alone on the edge of the compound of the foundation. She was fighting back tears and rage at the whole fucked up situation. Part of her wanted to run away from it all and leave it behind, part of her wanted to see Jack and cry in his arms, although she suspected that Matty had made that phone call yet and of course she wanted Mac there, she wanted so badly to see him, to hug him and tell him how much she missed him. Mac stood next to her and desperately tried to think, but his brain came absolutely nothing. All he could do at this point was follow Riley and hope he could somehow work out what had happened, how it had happened and how he could fix it. Was it only Riley who couldn’t see him? It had to be Bozer too, that’s why he hadn’t reacted earlier. God what had happened? How was here but not here? After ten minutes Riley turned back and headed towards the main foundation building, Mac in a desperate attempt kept up a stream of conversation, hoping against hope that on some level Riley might register his voice. But she didn’t.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally a new chapter in this wonderfully weird story! Mac tries to make his friends see and him..

In the end Mac spoke for so long, he went hoarse, he even found he had difficulty breathing, something he couldn’t really explain as he wasn’t even really sure, he was breathing. Was he dead? Was that possible? Mac immediately dismissed it immediately. This, all this had to be some of kind disturbing, drug induced hallucination maybe? That had to be it. He followed Riley around the Phoenix Foundation rambling at her, trying to make her see him

“Come on Riles, talk to me. Please. You know I’m here. Tell me you here, show me you here.”

Riley made her way to one of the many offices in the Phoenix, Mac registered the refusal to go back to the war room, where she normally spent most of her time.

“Riley, tell me what happened? Please, I’m stuck. I’m…I’m right here next to you.”

She opened up her laptop and started to type at the desk. Mac tried a different tac again, although this hadn’t worked before. He moved in front of her and pushed his hand onto her laptop in an effort to shut it. But somehow it didn’t work, although his hand made contact, he couldn’t actually do anything with it, he couldn’t make it move. Riley paused and looked at the laptop screen and moved it around registering it was perhaps stuck. Mac sighed and moved around next to her in an effort to see what she was doing, he got the fright of his life when he fell not onto Riley, but through her landing with a bump on her left side on the floor. She saw none of this, she only looked up when she thought she heard an odd noise, but then shrugged and simply continued to type angrily (there was a lot of aggressive taping of keys) with the odd quiet curse word. Mac got up and watched her for a little while, he sat himself down against the and just looked at her. After a while Riley stopped typing and put her head in her hands, alone and angry she started to cry. She cried so much her mascara began to run, Mac got immediately and started talking again

“Riles…please don’t cry I’m right here. I know you can’t hear me or see me…or I feel me. But Riley….please know somewhere deep down that I’m here. I’ll…fix this…as soon as I figure out what this is….I promise.”

On instinct Mac tried to put his hand on her shoulder, again he went through. But his reaction was faster this time, he didn’t stumble, he only swore. He withdrew speedily, the idea of putting his hand through Riley disturbed him more than the wanted to admit. He stepped back and ran his hands through his hair, trying to stay calm. He hated the idea of seeing Riley and watching her weep and not being able to even smile at her or hug her or offer her some kind of comfort. The tears that had threatened to come when she’d be walking outside, came in earnest now. It was a rare occurrence to see her cry so much and filled with such rage and frustration

“Riley…I promise I’ll fix this. I swear it” was all Mac could say in response to the tears. He tried to put his hand on her shoulder, but he managed to stop himself falling this time, he simply rested it on her shoulder as if he could give her a squeeze or a hug. This produced a strange reaction; although she did stop crying, she had a confused look on her face. Riley wiped her eyes and got up, she opened the door of the office and look around.

“Anyone there?” she called out

“Yes!!! Yes!!! Riley I’m right here! You knew I was here! You could feel I was here! Riley I’m right here! You sensed I was in the room…but you can’t see or hear me, which is very frustrating…” Mac trailed off

Afterwards she sat down again and resumed her work, Mac sighed. He decided to leave Riley be for the timing being, if he could make a connection with her, maybe he could connect with Bozer? Or at least remember what happened??? She’d conveniently left the door open so Mac didn’t have to worry about walking through it or falling through it? God this was all giving him a headache, this is an incredibly complicated problem which I have no idea what to do about it type of headache. Mac sighed again and departed. He found Bozer very much where he had left him, but no longer weeping, although Mac’s heart broke a little when he saw how raw his friend’s eyes were. He pushed that thought out his mind and tried again. Bozer was working too, he was skimming through video files on a computer, Mac stood behind Bozer

“Okay Boze, I seriously need your help. I get that your upset…and something happened to …me. But I’m kinda fuzzy on the details, you’re going to have to fill me in. Please give some indication that you can hear me.”

Bozer did not respond to any of this

“Boze, come on please!! Talk to me. I’m literally right here. Ahhhh”

Mac cursed again in frustration, while he thought that this was not going be easy, he hoped he could make some progress. He was at least at this point unwilling to put his hand through Boze or risk what might happened to him or Bozer. So he decided to keep a steady stream of conversation

“Okay Boze, this is going to be complicated. I get that too, I get that it’s going to take a while for you to talk to me. It’s…fine. I can wait or at least I think I can. Bozer, can you at least give me a hint of what you’re working on? Or that you can hear me tell me something, okay show me that you can register I’m even in the room. Alright not working, let’s see, what can I remember about the day, maybe that will help? This started off as an ordinary day. I walked into the building, it was a weekend or is a weekend I guess? I’m already getting confused. Alright, the most pressing thoughts I had were with the projects I wanted to do and…well I guess the thing I thought about was it was nice having company on the weekend. Is any of this getting through to you?”

It was not. Bozer started to hum to himself as skimmed through the various files on the computers. Mac didn’t give up though, he sat himself on the desk in front of Bozer crossed legged and continued to talk.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac tries to make a connection with Boze and makes a horrific discovery when his friend visits the medical bay.

It was weird for Mac having a one-way conversation with Bozer. Boze was always the talker, Mac could talk too particularly about things he was passionate about. But Bozer, well he could talk about anything, literally anything and fill time for hours on end. It made their fights about movies or life in general fun. Bozer like Mac would never back down in an argument. So, listening to himself ramble on at Bozer uninterrupted for two hours was a novelty experience for Mac, but of course a deeply frustrating one as well. He got no response at all; his best friend didn’t even register he was in the room. Finally Mac took a breath because he couldn’t take it anymore. He sat disconsolate and depressed staring at Bozer moving around the labs. At least he’s stopped crying, Mac thought. But everything about Bozer screamed sadness and disappointment. To an outsider Bozer would have looked perfectly normal, working away in contented silence. But to Mac he could see how upset still was. Every gesture, every movement was a little bit slower than it should be. He was going through the motions, all his passion and frenetic energy which Mac loved about Bozer was gone. He was almost robotic.

Mac sat on the table and pondered, he had to find exactly what had happened to him. They thought he was…missing…dead?? The little snippets of conversation he had managed to pick up hadn’t exactly been illuminating. He tried to recall the last few days. It had been what was in Mac’s life quite a standard week, Matty had sent them on a mission to stop a terrorist in an obscure European country that most people hadn’t heard of. What was the guy’s name? Mac couldn’t remember, but as he thought back other details returned. They’d managed to locate the guy’s hideout, the three of them were there; Mac, Bozer and Riley. It was all very medieval and weird even for them; the device which they had assumed was a bomb had been stored in a cave surrounded by guards. But the hideout looked like something out of a trashy fantasy movie rather than the lair of a terrorist. All the local townspeople had begged them not to go, rambling about how people who went there never came back, they disappeared. It was odd, they weren’t killed, they literally ‘disappeared’. None of them had paid any attention to any of it. They had done their best to assure everyone that everything would be fine and they would get rid of the device and the cronies who had been guarding it.

It had been an oblong shape, silver and grey with red lights. Mac had never seen a bomb like it and of course his interest was peaked. He’d approached it with Bozer and Riley guarding the entrance and then what had happened?? There was a blinding flash of white light, he remembered covering his eyes and falling back on the stone and then ?? It was all a blank, well he remembered coming into the Phoenix and thinking it was the weekend and all of this mess. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t pick up Bozer departing the room, by the time he picked up on Boze’s lab coat disappearing, the door was shutting. Mac leapt up and followed him without thinking…followed him through a shut door that is. His whole body passed through the door as he were a ghost or a hologram, he didn’t feel anything apart from being incredibly freaked out again (it was a more extreme version of what had happened with Riley). When Mac came out into the corridor he stumbled in shocked and swore.

Bozer who had been walking a few metres ahead turned around and looked back at the empty corridor. He felt a shiver down his spine…like someone was watching him or…he was being watched by a camera?

“Is someone there?” he called

“Yes yes!! Boze I’m right here! Tell me you can…hear me or see me!” Mac responded racing forward

Bozer didn’t see him of course, but he went back down the corridor looking for, well he wasn’t really sure what exactly. He opened a couple of the doors and looked inside, Mac babbling at him by his side. Bozer couldn’t shake the feeling he was being observed, if Mac was here he thought, he’d say something about the human mind and it’s desire to be noticed. He shook his head, thinking about Mac wouldn’t help. Still it was weird, Bozer thought, he could have sworn some was watching him somehow. Maybe he was finally losing it in this place. It wasn’t the same without Mac, Mac wasn’t technically gone, he just wasn’t present. That reminded him…he should probably go...Bozer sighed and turned around back in the original direction he was going.

Mac’s desire to scream in frustration was back again. Riley couldn’t hear and neither could Bozer, but clearly, they knew on some level he was there, or something was there. But how to communicate to them? MacGyver still had absolutely no clue at all. He followed Bozer again through the bowls of the Phoenix intrigued as to where his friend was going. He went through several doors that were shut again, being horribly disturbed each time. Eventually Bozer arrived at the Phoenix Medical facilities, Mac was confused. Was Bozer hurt? Did the explosion do something to him? Why was he?? Bozer paused before he opened the main door, wringing his hands before finally turning the grey handle. His friend followed stepping through the swinging door.

Bozer spoke quietly to one of the doctors there, a black-haired guy that Mac couldn’t recall seeing before

“Could I see him?” Boze asked quietly

“Here again? Are you sure you can cope?” the doc responded

“Look, I just hate the idea of him being all alone. Has anyone else been to see him?”

“No, one of your friends, the young woman, she tried, but came out crying.”

Boze looked at the floor thinking of Riley.

“I won’t do that, I just think someone should keep him company. I mean don’t people say that they can hear you? Even like a coma?”

“You realise he’s not in coma?”

“I know that, you get my point though?”

“Of course Mr Bozer, go right inside.”

Bozer nodded and turned a door on his left. Mac was fascinated, that was a small ward of the foundation where only the most severe cases were kept. It was a place despite his god-awful track record that he’d rarely been in. He waited a bit too long, the black-haired doc passed through him and Mac shuddered as did the doc. The doctor looked back at Bozer’s retreating back, but then shrugged his shoulders and departed to another part of the medical bay.

Mac pushed his hand through the door and then the rest of him, he stared as his whole body seemed to slide through or pass through a solid door? What was happening to him? Clearly it had to be related to why everyone couldn’t see him or hear him? He looked up, his eyes searching for Boze amongst the gear and beds. Clearly this room was so rarely used, it was partly a storage facility too. He saw him sitting by one the beds and then he saw it…or rather him…himself. MacGyver found himself looking at himself or a version of himself. He, Angus MacGyver was looking at another Angus MacGyver lying in bed. The one in the bed had seen better days. His face was a sea of black and purple bruises, his lip was cut and his eye was so badly damaged that it had got slightly mishappen. As Mac’s eyes travelled down himself, he took in the heavy bandages on one arm that went over his whole hand to the tips of his fingers. On his other arm, they had put an IV in his hand as Mac moved in closer, he saw that three of his fingers were broken. He was on a respirator and was surrounded by a whole load of other machines monitoring his vital signs. Bozer was in a chair next to the bed jabbering away

“Hey man, sorry I haven’t visited much lately. Work’s been weird without you and yeah…there’s been some stuff to deal with. Anyway I’m here now and I’m really sorry I’m late.”

Then Bozer pulled out a mini ipad and turned it on

“I figured we could maybe watch Rick and Morty together or Die Hard. I know they’re not exactly intellectual or anything, but yeah…we know both of them so well. I thought it might trigger I don’t know something.”

Afterwards he pulled what would been a dinner tray next in front of Mac (the one on the bed) and propped the ipad up and pulled up a Netflix account. MacGyver stood watching this whole scene in shock, he didn’t have brain capacity to really understand it. What he really a ghost? How could any of this be real? He had to know what had happened. He…how was he going to get out of this? As Mac watched this tragic scene, an odd notion entered his mind. He seemed to walk to be able to walk through doors, through people? Could he walk through himself, could he get control of his own body back? It probably wasn’t that simple (whatever was in Mac’s life?). But maybe…just maybe he could do something?

Slowly Mac approached his sleeping form, carefully picking the side Bozer was not on. He took long, slow, deliberate steps because well he wasn’t quite sure why. He got the bedside and closed his eyes. He took one final step and then opened them and there he was standing in the middle of his own sleeping form. It made no sense, all his knowledge of physics and chemistry, hell human biology was thrown out of the window. Mac decided to see if he could lie down…inside himself. That just sounded so wrong on so many different levels. He pushed his worries away and laid down. He didn’t fall through the floor, but…he suddenly felt constrained as if he was trapped in a box. He tried to open his eyes, all he could see was blackness. The task was to try and move, he could still hear Bozer chatting away to him about how Die Hard really was Bruce Willis’s best movie and Jack had a point. He registered what he presumed was Bozer arm or hand touch his own arm. He took some deep breaths and tried to moved his fingers; once, twice, three times and nothing.  
  
Still Mac was stubborn and did not give up. He tried moving other bits of himself thinking strange thoughts like move or move left leg or raise arm, but nothing came of it. Maybe he was overthinking this? Something he’d been accused of many times in the past. He just had to relax into it. Mac wanted to laugh at the ridiculous nature of all of this. This was a new situation even for him. He took a few deep breaths and tried to think more rationally, more naturally. Bozer’s voice still there unknowingly urging Mac on.

“I really need you to be okay Mac, come on. I’m sure you’ve faced worse odds than this. You gotta pull through this. I…please don’t make me be the one to call up and Jack…don’t make me be the one to…go to your funeral. I…we were supposed to be best buds for like ever. You were going to be the best man at my wedding…yeah…yeah I know. I need a girlfriend first, just you wait Mac. I’m going to get back to Lianne and marry her…you promised me man. Please.”

Then Bozer wiped his eyes, he was about to pull the ipad away when he felt Mac’s bandaged fingers grip his arm and he wouldn’t let go.

“Mac! Mac you’re there! You can hear me! Come on man, do something else. My hand’s here. Open your eyes dude! Please…”

Mac let go of Bozer fingers and one version of MacGyver sat up breathing hard and fell out of himself onto the floor. He felt like he had been trapped and couldn’t control his movements, he remained on his hands and knees as Bozer ran for the door

“Doc, doc! You gotta come in here like right now!!! He moved his fingers. Mac’s alive! Come on hurry!!!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm super sorry it's taken so long to update this :(
> 
> I also know this isn't a big update, but I hope you like it. 
> 
> Boze makes a connection with Mac and Matty faces the consequences of her actions (sort of)

Mac scrambled back onto the bed, into the bed? He wasn’t sure how to describe it. Seemingly without thinking too much about it, he managed to somehow lock himself back into his own body. He felt the feeling return to his right hand and started to move it as fast as possible. He started to tap with his fingers, desperate for Bozer to come back. The problem was that, while he was in his body, he couldn’t see or hear anything, he had no idea if Bozer was returning, even in the room with him. It was just blackness. He just had to hope and keep going, keep his grip on his body for as long as he could. Fortunately Boze did return without the doctor (he couldn’t find him). He picked up the movement of the hand and ran back over, he tried to grab Mac’s fingers, but then his friend started to shake violently, and he let go. Then the tapping returned, the same movements over and over again “H-E-L-P-M-E”, morse code on repeat.

“Mac, I don’t know where you are but…”

Bozer stopped midsentence and strained to recall his own morse code from camping trips long ago. He gripped Mac’s arm tight, to try and stop the movements just for a moment so he could tap out a response, Mac felt Bozer’s grip on his skin and waited.

“I-H-E-A-R-Y-O-U-I-H-E-A-R-Y-O-U.”

Mac was ecstatic that he had finally made a connection with someone. Bozer could hear him! He could see him (sort of). However, he was still stuck in some strange nether space, blind and barely able to move. Desperate, he tried to yell out, to scream, to lift his head up. His head started to hurt with the effort and of course absolutely nothing came of it. Determined not to lose Bozer, he went back to code

“T-R-A-P-P-E-D-T-R-A-P-P-E-D”

“W-H-R-E-R-U”

In one way it was a bizarre question to ask, but it was only the thing Bozer could think of . His active imagination went wild with the possibilities. Mac was alive! If he thought he was trapped, he had to be somewhere? But where? Trapped in his body? Trapped somewhere else? Or thought he was trapped ? If they knew where he was? Maybe he could guide him back?

“I-W-I-L-L-G-E-T-U-H-O-M-E”

Mac tried to tap out a response, but he felt whatever connection he had to his body fading. He started to shake again and Bozer screamed for the doctor once more. He didn’t leave this time, he kept his grip on Mac’s arm. The convulsing continued and Mac was ejected from his own body, he flew across the room and landed next to the wall (fortunately he did not go through it). Then the doctor finally came in and Bozer launched into a garbled explanation about what had just happened.

Matty Webber had made and received a lot of difficult phone calls in her life. It was part of her job, hard decisions, saying complicated, sometimes heart-breaking things to people; parents who had lost their sons, husbands who would never see their wives again, or receiving difficult news herself, the list went on. It never got easier, but over her long years in the CIA and to a certain extent the foundation she had simply gotten used to it. But this, this was something else. Her connection to both Jack and MacGyver made this more complicated and messier. It was partly her own fault, she had put off calling Jack out of some vague mis-guided hope that every would be alright. She also knew that Jack racing home would not help Mac recover, so she didn’t tell him. But then Riley and Bozer…had disobeyed and now Jack was on his way home after perhaps rightly screaming down the phone at her (he would have skipped the phone call, but the place he had been in was out of the way and so obscure he ironically needed the Phoenix’s help to get back to the States) .She knew what to expect and Jack didn’t hold back

“I told you this would happen! I fucking warned you!! But no, no. It’s just a research trip, Mac can go on his own. You need some time apart! You fucked up so you both need some time to think! Mac doesn’t need protecting on a trip to a lab. Well look where that logic got you Matty Webber!”

“Jack, the decision I made was based on facts. The mission to Zambia was an absolute mess …you and Mac were lucky to get out with your lives, both of yo..”

“No, no, Matty! For once you listen to me. Mac is in that god damn hospital bed because of you! Because you insisted on splitting us up. Because I had to go Belgrave on my own, because my contacts were so important. Because we need to time ‘to think about our errors’. This is your fucking fault! Mac’s blood is on your god damn hands!!!”

“Dalton..”

“Then I had to hear about from Riley!!! Her pleading with me to come back, Bozer saying that I should go back and be with Mac. Because…because…”

“Jack, you coming home any quicker wouldn’t have helped MacGyver. I know what he means to you, but you had a job to do. And you abandoning your mission for Mac wouldn’t have…”

“I am not done! You took this risk, no, you made Mac take this risk! But you won’t face the consequences, Mac will ! I swear to God, Matty. If Mac dies, I am so fucking done! I’m done with all of this. “

“Are you quite finished Dalton?”

“No! If Mac dies.”

  
Jack’s voice cracked at this point

“If he doesn’t make it, I’m taking Bozer and Riley out with me. I won’t have you risking them, I can’t lose them. I’ll get them out of your reach…I’ll make sure they’re safe…I’ll protect them from you…”

“I think they might have something to say about that.”

Jack was breathing hard down the phone

“When’s the next flight?”

“Three hours, I’ve booked you on it. I suggest you…I know Mac would want to see you.”

The response was Dalton slamming the phone down. Webber had put her own phone down and sat in the office alone. She hated being called out by Jack, but part her thought he was right, sort of. The only reason the duo had been separated was they had already as Jack put it ‘fucked up’. The previous mission had been an unmitigated disaster. Mac had come back with a broken arm and Jack had been stabbed in the back and had to have physical therapy. The data they were sent to retrieve was recovered, but there had been an international incident in the process so Matty Webber had to spend in and clean it up. She was so angry that she had yanked them apart. She’d set Mac on a research trip with Riley and Bozer and Jack off to Belgrave for reconnaissance. Of course Webber couldn’t have predicted the explosion or Mac’s fate, she had genuinely though that some time apart would be good for the duo, reduce they’re slightly dysfunctional co-dependent relationship. Part of her had also thought Mac might enjoy the research trip, he never really got to be a scientist, so it was meant to be a kind of treat, but then the disaster in the lab and now…

Bozer and Riley weren’t speaking to her, well they did, but it was curt and civil. Nothing more and she? Well, she still had an agency to run, so she didn’t have time to talk to them (that was Webber told herself anyway), to check on them. She made sure they both saw the mandated mental health specialists that the Phoenix had and they were both grounded, no field missions until further notice. So Bozer worked away in the labs and visited Mac, Riley helped the technical staff and they all stayed away from each other. They’d both been shocked when Matty hadn’t immediately summoned Jack home and of course they had ignored her orders and told him anyway. Webber had tried to reprimand them, but they had both stood their ground pointing out that Jack had a right to know as Mac’s brother and friend. She shuddered as she recalled the conversation in the war room, but then her professional brain kicked in, replaying conversations was not productive to any party. Matty rubbed her eyes, she had other things to think about other than her insubordinate subordinates. The explosion being the obvious one.

Matty pulled out the mission reports and read them again. The descriptions of the explosion and what had happened in the lab made no sense. Energy readings shooting up with no apparent cause, a blinding flash of light and then a huge discharge. Mac had been the closest to the device followed by Bozer. Bozer’s notes were the most bizarre of all “Agent MacGyver seem to disappear and reappear as the flames and debris around him spread.” Then half the building had come down (that was the least surprising part about the incident). All of them were rushed to hospital. Bozer and Riley had escaped relatively unscathed, but Mac because he’d tried presumably disarm or switch the device off was the worst hit.

Beyond his physical injuries, the doctors had been baffled by his brain activity. The assumption was he was in a coma, but the brain activity didn’t seem to match that, there were strange spikes and then he was apparently dormant again. His mental condition was something more akin to a deep sleep, rather than a coma. A garbled useless explanation. She needed to visit Mac, she’d been putting that off too. Dalton would be back soon enough and then the fighting would continue on and the screaming. She might as well visit Mac now and have some peace and quiet. She moved towards the infirmary still running scenarios in her brain. It was only Bozer storming passed her that woke her up from her thoughts. She looked up, but he didn’t even glance at her.

She found the doctor still in Mac’s room staring after him

“What happened?”

“Mr Bozer is convinced that his friend is somehow going to make out of this.”

Matty smiled sadly

“Mac has a remarkable capacity for surviving he impossible.”

“Well his friend was convinced that he somehow grabbed his hand, but I pointed out that was completely impossible.”

“How can you be sure?”

“There isn’t brain activity enough for him to even be able to do that.”

Webber glared, but the doctor stood his ground

“If that will be all Director Webber, I’ve got other patients to attend to”

Matty waved him away and went to sit by Mac’s bedside. Unlike Bozer she didn’t really feel the need to say anything. It was pointless, she offered up a small prayer for Mac to wake up, but that was it. Mac watched over her from the side-lines

“Matty, I’m so sorry I put you through all this. I should have anticipated how unstable the device was. The readings were strange from the start, but I was too fascinated by it to really think about the implications. I should have been more careful. If I’d simply not got caught up in the science of it, I might have been able to stop it, to protect us... If I mean ,when I get out of this I hope you can forgive me.”

Mac departed to look for Bozer and Matty looked up, it seemed as though someone had brushed past her. Something or someone had ruffled her hair, but she was alone in the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think of Matty being yelled at by Jack? 
> 
> Too mean? Not mean enough? Was she convincing in this bit?


End file.
